Changing salaried employees to hourly & exempt “professional” employees

Question

Our association library is considering changing some librarian positions from salaried “professional” to hourly. Is that legal?

Answer

Unless a union contract or other binding document says otherwise, an employee can ALWAYS be converted from “salaried” (meaning they get paid an incrementally doled out annual salary) to “hourly” (meaning they get paid by the hour).

Union Business in the Library

Question

I understand that, as employers of a union shop, the library is required to allow the union a reasonable amount of time to conduct union business.[1] However, how much time is reasonable? Can employees meet with their shop stewards on the clock at the library for 5+ hours a week, taking both away from their duties? Is there a ballpark?

Answer

The care required when addressing union-related issues in so critical, we're going to start with a small cautionary poem:

Paid sick leave for COVID quarantine

Question

The library (school district public library without a union or a bargaining agreement and less than 50 employees) offers paid sick leave for most employees. However, based on what we have learn we have paid people, without it coming off of their earned sick time, if they are told to quarantine because they have been exposed to the virus.

Answer

I can offer a simple answer, and a complicated answer. 

Here is the simple answer: 

Collaborating with volunteer organizations to provide services

Question

If a nonprofit organization is unionized, may they have volunteers as part of a collaborative effort with another organization for a service that is not currently provided? For example, could they collaborate with a volunteer organization for an outreach service that is not currently provided?

Answer

This is a very good question, since the use of volunteers to supplement or replace work typically performed by union employees can most definitely be a violation of a collective bargaining agreement.

COVID-19 and part-time pay

Question

Can libraries, using public money, pay part-time staff if they are either forced to close due to the COVID-19 or if the employee is forced to self-quarantine?

Answer

This is a very specific question, during a very specific, difficult time.  So before we delve into the answer, I want to be clear: every library dealing with the human resource considerations of a pandemic response should assemble the following, and be ready to draft a custom approach that takes into consideration:

Employee Rights

Question

Hi!

What is the order of due process in a local library for employees?
Which laws/policies apply most in advocating employee rights?

Answer

Wow, what a great question: what is the hierarchy of laws impacting the employment conditions of librarians?

The laws impacting the employment conditions of librarians are a complex logic tree with many branches.  When I consider the amount of laws, and the permutations….

Just…wow.[1]